USA > Illinois > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 13
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Missouri has the iron, but we possess the coal, and her iron must needs travel to our furnaces.
THE MORE VALUABLE KINDS OF STONE.
Jackson County has the distinction, of which its citizens may be proud, of furnishing the finest'quality of stone for building and ornamental purposes to be found in the great Mississippi valley. This may seem to be a strong assertion, but it is capable of substantiation. The sonthern part of the county affords a brown or reddish-brown sandstone, similar in appearance, but far superior in quality, to the famous Connecticut or New York sandstone. This stone is coming more and more into demand as its virtues become known. The Custom House at Evansville, Indiana, is built entirely of this. It has been extensively used in Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. The extensive quarries, two in number, are situated on the line of the Illinois Central rail- road, about four miles sonth of Carbondale.
A white sandstone, equal to this in fineness of grain and quality, is found in inexhanstible quantities, at what is known as Big Hill, near Grand Tower, in the western part of the county, in close proximity to the Grand Tower and Carbondale railroad. Both of the varieties of sandstone have been freely used in the noble building of the Southern Illinois Normal University and on the maguificent new State House at Springfield. The entire trimmings of the north, south and east fronts of the Capital, are of Jackson Connty sand- stone. The stately Doric columns of that most noble pile are of red, and the Corinthian, or to speak more accurately, the Composite capitals, are carved from the white variety, as are also the bases, and thic elegant cornice over the arched entrance. The spandrels are composed of the red, except the centre, which is white, and the blendiug of the two colors is most harmoni- ous, and its effect very fine.
Further, the mighty eagle which forms the keystone of the grand arch over the main doorway, and seems to watch jealously over the liberties of the people of this mighty Commonwealth, is elaborately carved out of the red sandstone of this county.
The ornamental carvings of windows and doorways of the State Normal at Carbondale, are all of these two varieties of stone. But why say more ? Enough has been said to prove the truth of the assertion that the best sand- stone in the great valley, is found in this county. Not many years will pass, erc these quarries will "teem with human forms," and no elegant private mansion, or splendid public building, will be considered complete without its elaborate ornamental carvings and relief-work are composed of Jackson county sandstone.
But our county not alone boasts herself npon her sandstone. About four miles from Grand Tower on the Big Muddy river, are found extensive quar- ries of marble, of fine quality, and susceptible of receiving a high polish. This also, is destined to be widely used. In many portions of the county, notably in the western part, is found limestone of excellent quality, for building purposes, and in quantities sufficient to supply the needs of the entire State.
CHAPTER X
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.
HE principal iudnstry of our people is agriculture. From the as- sessor's valuation tables for 1877, we find that the number of acres of wheat is 43,123. Estimating the average yield at 16 bushels per acre, which is rather under than over, we find that the num- ber of bushels of wheat produced in Jackson County is 689,969.
The acreage of corn is given as 31,269, and the average yield is near 35 bushels. Whence it will be seen that the number of bushels of corn pro. duced by Jackson County is 1,094,415.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
The oat acreage is 4571. Estimating the average yield at 30 bushels, it appears that Jackson County produces annually about 138,000 bushels of oats. The number of acres of meadow land is reported as 6486. Let us as- sume that the average yield of hay in tons per acre is 2, and we have about 130,000 as the hay product of the county.
The value of the wheat crop is about $700,000
Of the corn crop about 440,000
Of the oat crop about 60,000
And of the hay crop 130,000
Making the total value of these four crops . $1,330,000
The number of acres in orchard is 3,524, and in enclosed pasture 8,883, and of enclosed woodland 171,467. No figures are accessible to enable us to give an estimate of the value of the fruit crop, which is very great, especially in the southern part of the county ; nor of the potato yield, which is not very valuable perhaps.
The total value of all agricultural products, including stock raising, is certainly in excess of $300,000; and is most likely nearer $400,000 than $300,000.
This great industry employs a majority of the people of the county who possess all of the sterling virtues of the rural free-holder. Directly upon the broad shoulders of the cultivator of the soil rests the prosperity of every other class of men. He is the autocrat who holds in his hands the destinies of men. His prosperity means universal prosperity ; his failure brings dis- tress sooner or later upon all. With the poet we say to the honest tiller of the soil :
" Ply your hands with busy care While the sun is shining bright, Briskly drive the polished share Ere the gloaming of the night :
Labor still, there still is need, Pulverize the fruitful soil, Bury the prolific seed, Earth shall well requite your toil.
All the millions must be fed, All dependent on the sod, All must look to you for bread. Faithful steward be of God."
It is unfortunate for us that we have so few manufactures in our county. We have, for instance, most excellent timber, which is sawed into lumber and sent to the north to be used in the manufacture of farm machinery and implements, and the farmer, who buys, has to pay the extra expense of ship- ping each way. It is time that a more liberal policy be adopted towards capitalists who have money to invest in manufactures. They should be urged to come and invest within our limits. The reaction and depression which followed the feverish expansion of all industries by the war, is passing away. The farmer, again, is beginning to receive the just recompense of his hard and honest labor. Prosperity is setting in upon us like a mighty tide. The result of increased confidence in the return of good prices is seen in the in- creased acreage of grain planted over last year. More acres are in wheat to- day in our county than was ever before known. The future of the agricul- turist is indeed promising.
Old methods of farming are passing away. The sickle with which the early settlers reaped the golden grain rusts upon the wall, and near it may be seen the more modern cradle. The reaper has supplanted them, and its cheerful clatter in the days when the fields grow yellow, is heard throughout all our borders. Gone is the flail of which poets have sweetly sung, and instead the farmer uses the steam-thresher, which if less poetical, is far superior to the ancient implement.
Our country is yet young. The child is yet in its mother's arms that will see the great fertile surface of our county all laid under contribution by skilful husbandmen, and producing abundantly.
Its broad breast is capable of supporting, instead of 25,000, a half-million of people. And one day they will be here. The tramp of their coming feet may even now be heard in imagination.
We are in the midst of the great wheat zone of our continent, and of course are provided with mills. We have many most excellent merchant mills, whose brands command the very highest market price. The number and capacity of these may be seen by a reference to the portion of the
work devoted to township sketches-space forbids their further mention here.
Through the kindness of E. B. Pellet, Secretary, we are enabled to present the following sketch of an association that has done and is doing much to improve the strains of stock and methods of farming in this county :
THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The first public Fair was held near Murphysboro', in the fall of 1858, when, owing to the beginning of the civil war, no more fairs were held until 1867. In 1867 and 1868 fairs were held in De Soto, under the auspices of some of our enterprising farmers, which met with such unexpected success that a company was organized in the spring of 1869. The company pur- cliased 20 acres of ground, near Murphysboro', at a cost of $1,500, erected conveniences, procured articles of association from the Secretary of State, on the 4th day of August, 1850, and were known as the Jackson County Agricultural and Joint Stock Association. The capital stock was five thousand dollars, divided into two hundred shares at twenty-five dollars each. The incorporators were John M. Gill, Thos. M. Logan, Logan Wheeler, Geo. G. Will, Wm. H. Davis, Philip Kimmel, Sr., C. B. Dishon, P. H. Hall, Isaac Kimmel, Wm. E. Talbott, S. S. Hall, James W. Hall, and Israel Blanchard.
The association continued its regular annual exhibition under the articles of association, until August 10, 1872, when it adopted the act of the Legis- lature, passed and approved April 17, 1871, providing for a Department of Agriculture. The name was then changed to the "Jackson County Agri- cultural Board," by which name it is now known. The Fairs have been regularly held on the grounds. The next fair will be held October.
The present Board of Directors are, Messrs. R. A. Beasley, Geo. G. Will, Henry Thompson, N. T. Eakin and Edward Worthen, all of whom are prac- tical farmers. The officers of the Board are, R. A. Beasley, President, E. B. Pellet, Secretary, G. G. Will, Treasurer.
CHAPTER XI
FAUNA AND FLORA.
BY ROBERT ALLYN, LL.D.
HERE are eighteen townships in the county, viz. : Ava, Elkville, Vergennes, Ora, Bradley, Degognia, Kinkaid, Levana, Somerset, De Sota, Carbondale, Murphysboro', Sand Ridge, Big Hill, Big Lake, Grand Tower, Ridge, and Makanda. Some of these are largely composed of bottom land and marshés, as Big Lake, for an example ; and others have much prairie surface, as in Vergennes and Elkville. The, history of each of these is to be written, and nothing further need be here said. The Fauna and Flora of these prairies and valleys and hills are curious and very interesting to science. The animals, large and small, use- ful and annoying to man, are too numerous to be recited and described here. The same may be said of the plants, annual and perennial. It is highly proper, however, to enumerate some of the most common of tliese in both kingdoms.
The deer indigenous to this territory was of two kinds-the American Deer (cervus Virginianus) and the White-tailed Deer (cervus leucurus). The latter is still found in the county, and affords rarc sport to huntsmen. The buffalo was undoubtedly a denizen of our plains. For a long time be- fore the settlers came, this noble animal had departed, as had the mammoth. Besides the deer and rabbit, and gray and fox-squirrels, there are few game animals. There are more of birds, as the turkey-the noblest of wild fowls -requiring most of art to shoot, and affording the most delicious food. The prairie-hen and water-fowl were also abundant, and easily approached in the early days, but now have grown so shy as to be obtained only with difficulty· It would be almost impossible within the limits of this article to name the various species of birds which frequent our waters and forests. Birds of passage, geese, ducks, pigeons, teal, and others haunt our lakes, and at spe- cial seasons darken the air. Then nearly all the warblers, and a hundred others, migrate through our county, from the sober garden-swallow and
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
phœbe to the gay taniger and bobolink. This latter bird most commonly passes our latitude before he adopts his soldier uniform of black and white and takes up his rattling song. And when he returns in autumn, it is with a quaker coat and a silent tongue, both suggestive of his destiny to become fat and idle.
Several species of the native animals, and probably many aboriginal plants also, have perished, being unable to endure the presence of civilization, or finding their congenial food appropriated by stronger races. The Indian himself, aside from that peculiar hostility which the English blood appears to have to any foreign stain, has proved himself averse to a dwelling-place among us, and has disappeared. So the bison departed on the advent of the hunter-tribe, which for a short period preceded the settlers. The deer has almost gone, and the wild-turkey and prairie-hen only maintain a stolen right to life by superior art in hiding. The wolf was such an enemy as could not be tolerated, and the fox still exists only by a more acute cunning. The gopher and porcupine have long since left for other haunts, as did the beaver, which was too valuable a prize to be left undisturbed in his native clime. To take the place of these, rats and mice have followed civilized man, as have a host of insécts, to be his torment, and an inducement to vigilance and industry.
In the vegetable kingdom, how many have fled we can scarcely guess. But the buffalo grass, which only grew on parts of our prairies, and perhaps not at all in our county, and almost wholly the large pampas grass, have given place to blue grass, which, in places where our domestic cattle feed, is rapidly and quietly displacing all others. How many weeds have been naturalized by man can only be conjectured. They have come along with useful plants and flowers, and serve almost as well to mark man's progress as do his biddings. And how many birds follow man! It is one of the facts to be marked that in the temperate zone the uncultivated forests maintain comparatively few of the smaller birds, particularly those whose songs delight the ear. The honey-bee also accompanies civilization, though its swarms do often escape and go in advance. In respect to grasses, birds and bees then, no less than weeds and annoying bugs, we have brought a great immigration to the county, and we have driven off the many tribes of aboriginal men and animals.
The fish of our streams are the cat, the bass, and the sun-fish. There are perch and others, but only the bass is a real game fish, and this often affords the finest sport.
The plants are many and rare, some for beauty and some for medicine. The pink-root, the columbo, the ginseng, the boneset, pennyroyal, and others are gathered and afford a supply of herbs valuable for the shelves of the apothecary. The plants for beauty are the phlox, the lily, the asclepias, the mints, golden rod, the eye-bright, gerardia, and hundreds more which adorn the meadows, and brooksides. The common names alone are given above, because so few would recognize them in any other dress. Besides, we have climbing vines, the trumpet-creeper, the bitter sweet, the woodbine, the cle- matis and the grape, which fill our woods with gay festoons, and add grace to many a decaying monarch of the forest. But our trees and grasses, one so lordly and permanent, the other so humble and transient, are the true glories of our county. The tulip tree often eighty feet in diameter, and nearly two hundred feet high. The oak, with at least its twenty varieties, the hickory with as many more species, the pecan, the thirty kinds of elm, from the sort with leaves large as a man's hand, to that which bears leaves scarcely larger than a thuinb-nail, the majestic honey locust, with its threats of thorns, the black walnut, so tall and straight in its bole, the hackberry,
' the gum tree, black and sweet, the giant cottonwoods, and hundreds more attest the fertility of our soil, and the mildness of our climate. While the blue-grass in its ten varieties, the timothy and redtop, with clover so abun- dant in succulence, prove how easy it might be to make ours a country for dairies, as it has been shown to be a place for wheat and maize. Our marshes too, produce in rank luxuriance numcrous kinds of scdges, which really ought to be in some way made useful. While the broad prairies still teem in some spots with the tall pampas grass, and brilliant wild flowers of the wilderness, no land can show a larger variety either useful or beautiful.
There are shrubs, which, for beauty of leaf and glory of autumn berries, ought by no means to be omitted from our list of attractions. The wahoe shows a wonderful brilliancy of scarlet fruit, which fairly seems to set the bottoms where it growa into flame ; and the fire bush-speckled alder, as it is elsewhere named-is if possible even more gorgeous-with its loads of crim- son berries which remain nearly the whole winter. These are easily trans- planted and might be made to adorn the lawns and gardens of our citizens,
and add a cheerfulness to our homes, and if they were judiciously mingled with evergreens, no picture could be finer at Christmas, than any settler's cabin or farmer's house could show to the passing traveler.
The pawpaw, is another shrub which has a beautiful foliage, and a fruit to most tastes very delicious, and if it were cultivated under the name of the custard-apple, as some sections call it, is would be a luxury indeed. There is no doubt that careful selection of seeds, and proper culture would at once increase the amount of fruit born by the shrub, and reduce the number and size of the seeds, while adding to the pulp till this should be even better than the banana. The same may be said of the persimmon, so acrid and astringent in its early state, and so date-like and sugary when fully ripened by frosts. If these fruits could be allowed half the care and scientific at- tention which the pear has had from the Hollanders, it is quite certain that they might become as luscious, and desirable as the peach or plum. They are native trees and appear to resist the insects, and accidents which over- take our imported trees, and if our planters would turn their studies and energies in this direction, America might add to the wealth and comfort of the world in them, as she has in the turkey and pota to.
This would be the place to speak more fully of the original trees and shrubs of the county, and of the animals indigenous to the section. But to give a simple scientific description of these would profit common readers little, and would only repeat what is already familiar to the learned. And to enu- merate the well-known names of our wild beasts, and fowls, and plants, would add little to the interest of this volume. The day is not very distant in the past, when a good hunter was certain to kill game enough-turkey or grouse, squirrel or rabbit, deer or coon-before breakfast time, to support his family a week. He was certain to find duck or geese in their season, and able thius to defy want. Little work was needed to sustain life and rcar healthful children, and being much in the open air was favorable to health and lon- gevity. Then wild fruits, plums, grapes, crab-apples, pawpaws, may-apples, and nuts, pecans, walnuts, hazel, and hickory, abounded, and offered them- selves in unlimited luxury to all who desired them. It was an easy thing to supply a family with these things. Mast was so abundant that multitudes of hogs could sustain themselves in the forests with scarcely a care on the part of their owners, and with game so plenty it is no wonder that indolence should have been common among the people. So long as the wants of the people were few and simple, there was small need of hard liand labor, or much frugality. People were sure that famine would not reach them, and, as all were equal, and now wished to display a wealth they did not possess, they simply lived in content and listened to the storm of anxiety and warfare elsewhere.
But there came over the country a wave of speculation in the raising of fruit. The climate and soil, and the direct line to a market which the Illi- nois Central Rail Road offered, opened men's minds to ambition, and their land to speculation, and for several years nothing was thought of but either how to sell a farm or to raise a crop of peaches which should astonish the world. No business is more promising, and none has absorbed so much capital. Since fruit-growing has been made a leading business of our county, the citi- zens have mostly devoted themselves to it, and the section is one which ships largely by all trains to the northern market. Of course there is danger that by a continual transportation of this fruit-the best growth of the soil -in fact almost the soil itself-the land will become impoverished unless by skil- ful husbandry it can be restored. What manures are needed to keep up the vitality and productiveness of the grape and of the peach ; liow to destroy the apple-borer and the curculio and fruit worm ; by what arts to circum- vent the chinch bug, and potato beetle, and army worm ; these are questions for every citizen and farmer to ponder, and scientific men should be alert to destroy these enemies of the race. Birds should be protected, and such as destroy insects and larvæ should be artificially bred, if possible, till our woods and meadows are vocal with the songs of thesc best assistants of man in the work of defending growing crops. The quail, the robin and thrush, the sparrows and fly-catchers, the swallows and night-hawks, should not sim- ply be tolerated ; they should be welcomed and harbored. So the blue birds and wrens, the woodpeckers, and even the noisy jays, should feel at home everywhere. The orioles and tanigers, the cat bird and mocking bird, ought to be almost domesticated and greeted as companions. Some berries these birds will of course destroy, but the armies of noxious creatures they will slay would have destroyed tenfold more in almost any one year, and very soon would have consumed all the hopes of the husbandman. Our writing would fail of its point if it should omit to emphasize this matter and enforce it on the attention of the whole community. Its importance can scarcely be
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
overrated, and the whole community should be a grand parliament to enact regulations and to enforce customs which should aid every insectivorous bird to find a nest, and rear many broods of young each year in our orchards and forests, till these should sweep away, and forever, the pests which now prey upon our noblest industry-agriculture. The farmer cannot protect himself alone, as the merchant can his goods, from flies and weevils, and worms, and bugs ; but the birds can do it by their greediness and vigilance. Why shall it not be considered a crime to hunt a bird at certain seasons, or at any time, to break up its nest ? Birds add so much to the beauty and cheerfulness of a home, and are so useful in a thousand ways, that they fully merit protec- tion not only by the statute law, but the universal custom and constant dili- gence of every citizen of a land that would have its agriculture, and through it every other interest, assured of prosperity.
We give the following classification of birds into three divisions, as found in the " Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society " of 1876 :
1st. Those of the greatest value to the fruit-growers, in destroying noxious insects, and which should be encouraged and fostered in every way.
Blue birds, Tit-mice or Chicadees ; Warblers, (small summer birds, with pleasaut notes, seen in trees and gardens) ; Swallows; Vuros, (small birds called green-necks); all birds known as Woodpeckers, except sap-sucker (Picus varius) ; this bird is entirely injurious, as it is not insectivorous, but feeds on the inner bark, cambium (and the elaborated sap) of many species of trees, and may be known from other Wood-peckers, by its belly being yellowish, a large black patch on its breast, and the top of its head of a dark, bright red ; the male have also a patch of the same on their throats and with the inner margins of the two central tail feathers white. This bird should not be mistaken for the two other, most valuable birds which it nearly resembles, to wit : The Hairy Woodpecker (Picus Villosus et vars), and the Downy Woodpecker (Picus pubescens et vars). These two species have the outer tail feathers white (or barred with black), and have only a small patch of red on the back of the head of the males only, (The Yellow- Hammer, or Flecker, Colaptus auratus, is somewhat colored with yellow, and should not be mistaken for the Sap-Sucker ; it is a much larger bird.) The Read-headed Woodpecker (Melonerepes erythrocephalus) sometimes pecks into apples, and devours cherries, and should be placed in the next division (2d). The Wrens, Ground Robin (known as Chervink), Meadow Lark, all the Fly- catchers, the King Bird, or bee-catcher, Whip-poor-will, Night Hawk, or goat-sucker, Nut-hatcher, Pewee, or Pewit. All the Blackbirds, Bobolink, (!) American Cuckoos, Plovers, Snipe (Upland), Grosbeaks and other Finches (Fringillidall ), Quails, Song Sparrow, Scarlet Tanager, Black, White and Brown Creepers, Maryland Warbler, Indigo Bird, Chirping Sparrow, Black-throated Bunting, Thrushes, except those named in the next class, and all domestic fowls, except geese.
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